The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) announced on 24 December 2006 its approval for nine foreign-funded banks to start their preparatory work for setting up local corporations in China.[4][5][6][7][8] Currently, even more banks have been able to incorporate locally in China.

^Ownership is through a Variable Interest Entity (V.I.E.) structure, which was created in 2000, to circumvent Chinese restrictions on investment in certain industries. Buyers were actually purchasing shares in a Cayman Islandsshell corporation, not in the Alibaba group, as China forbids foreign ownership of its companies. Direct investment in MYbank or Ant Financial is not possible as of June 2017. A future IPO offering for Ant Financial Services Group, which owns the subsidiary MYbank, is expected in both the domestic Chinese stock exchange and overseas exchanges.[1][2][3]